Today, my number one request for help is…
Recruiting. Recruiting. Recruiting!
Maybe, by clicking our heels three times, we can magically transform our recruiting challenges.
I apologize for the snark; recruiting has been an uphill battle for years.
One of my favorite meetings 10 years ago involved the recruiting director of the City and County of Denver using a magic wand, praying their recruitment struggles would improve.
“As a manager, more than half of your job is recruiting new talent,” Julie Zhou suggests in her book The Making of a Manager.
I wish there was a magic wand or a heel click that could help with recruiting.
But, this is real life – there’s no Harry Potter or Wonder Woman coming to help us.
We must dig in and do the work.
Several of my clients are reluctant to improve by saying things like…
- “We are getting a new ERP…we will just wait for that to help.”
- Or: “We aren’t like the private sector, we have to do examinations and fingerprints”
- And my all-time favorite: “This work is service, people can wait.”
It’s no secret, every organization in the world is struggling with hiring and every recruitment team is overloaded with requests for more.
To start, here are 5 things you can stop doing right now that will immediately improve your recruiting efforts:
1. Stop expecting HR Recruitment teams to hire your employees.
A manager’s #1 job is to create a team. If you are not creating a pipeline for your team, you will never have enough people to help.
You are responsible for the recruitment. Not HR.
They are a broker and not the buyer. You are the buyer.
Partner with HR to make sure your recruitment is moving and you are not the hold up.
Do not sit back and hope HR is going to send you a list of “UNICORNS.”
2. Stop posting recruitments that say: “Looking for a unicorn.”
No one wants to be your unicorn. Stop asking for one.
Instead, use simple plain language about the job.
Be direct about the role: “Responsible for helping connect businesses to new funding opportunities.”
3. Stop making job postings too long
Time to stop posting 9-page graphic novels about the awesomeness of your town, only for them to find out it is in the middle of Ohio, and you are the only person who will be working in the budget office.
(No offense, Ohio)
Instead, keep your posting to readable lengths.
Make your postings 2-3 pages at most, with concise bullet points that clearly outline the different parts of the role.
And don’t forget to put your salary front and center.
4. Stop making people in administrative roles take exams and tests.
Exams and tests for a job are silly. There are no exams for admin roles in most industries.
Instead, ask your Civil Service Commission to review all roles with exams and ask for a current waiver until you are caught up.
Then, work with the Commission to get rid of them all together.
It’s arduous steps like these that make it harder to fill roles, and demotivate potential candidates.
5. Stop talking trash about your HR team.
Elected Officials, Directors, Managers, Supervisors…I’m talking to you.
HR is your team.
Stop bashing them in every meeting and at every public event.
They hear you. And in fact, they hear it all day long.
Instead, help them. Take ownership of your recruitment.
Set daily reminders to make sure you get back to them with questions and insights on the job descriptions. Just like the first item on this list.
Help them get you a new employee.
If you are complaining, you are not helping.
Want to learn more about how you can improve recruitment for your workplace? Drop me a line here.